“The government is ready to consider setting up an RCI on Memali if any individual, body or political party requests or proposes it, in the interest of the victims of the incident,” Zahid posted on Twitter today.

Dr Mahathir Mohamad was prime minister at the time of the incident at Kampung Memali in Baling, Kedah that saw a confrontation between police and supporters of religious teacher Ibrahim Libya, who resisted attempts to arrest him under the Internal Security Act.

The confrontation, however, resulted in the deaths of 18 people, four of them policemen.

Mahathir has claimed he was not in the country during the incident and passed the responsibility to his then deputy Musa Hitam.

In recent media reports on the incident, Mahathir, who is chairman of PPBM and Pakatan Harapan, said the villagers in Memali should expect retaliation if they killed policemen.

“I’ve pointed out to them, that four policemen were killed with parangs. To kill with parangs, you must get really close to the policemen.

“And of course, when you kill a policeman, the police have the right to retaliate. One has to remember that these policemen were only carrying out their duty,” Mahathir said.

Dr M tells Hadi: Policemen who died in Memali had families too